Protection Detail
by Zalein
Summary: "Que, whah? But-there's two of you!" Rex pointed insistently from one Caesar to another. "Why are there two of you?" Six and Rex have been kidnapped to a pocket dimension. Their captors insist that it's for Rex's protection, but Rex was never one to step back and hide. Not for the first time, this just might save his life.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note**: This fic takes place sometime mid season three. There will be no ships. If I could've picked three characters as featured in this fic, they would have been Rex, Caesar, and Six. Special thanks to Flick for the inspiration and encouragement to write this! That is all._

* * *

Sometimes disasters happen without warning, gone one moment and striking the next. Unpredictability: that nameless fear that never quite leaves. This time, the disaster had warning, but that didn't make it expected. The warning was low, ominous roar that grew steadily louder, like the approach of an unseen speeding train.

"What the heck is that?" Rex complained, clamping a hand over each ear. The sound was echoing harshly from the metal walls of the Dam Headquarters around them. "Where's it coming from?"

"I don't see anything." Six drew his swords, turning his head from side to side. They were the only ones in that hallway-everyone else was already in the main room, ready for a briefing.

Before either of them had a chance to investigate further, disaster struck. There was a great tearing noise, and a blazing wound of fire and bone-wracking thunder spread under their feet, more than big enough to hold both of them. Rex flung his arms out, transforming them as fast as he could. He was too slow: with a startled shout, he plummeted into the chasm, giant fingertips barely scraping the edge.

The next thing Rex knew, he was lying on a cold, hard surface. He snapped his eyes open and rolled onto his back, realizing with some shock that the motion was hard, as though his limbs had been replaced with rocks. What was wrong with him? Had he hit his head?

"Initiate program shut-off. The transition-readings were higher than they should have been. What's Rex's status?"

That voice... Rex screwed his face up, discovering that his thoughts were sluggish, too. Where did he know that voice from?

"There weren't transfer problems," another equally familiar voice murmured. "We got him. Him and his 'Providence nanny'."

He turned his head to the left, and saw a plain, generic hospital bed. The room smelled of antiseptic, and everything had a raw, slightly too-bleached look to it. He turned his head the other way. There was another bed that Six was stretched out on, unmoving. Rex immediately tossed his blanket back, struggling to sit up. It was absurdly difficult.

"Six...? Nrgh-Six!"

"Hold still, Rex," the second voice from before sighed, and Rex found himself being pushed back onto the bed. Rex fought the hands, until he realized who it was.

"Caesar!" Rex blurted out. Then he frowned, doing a mental double take: The scientist looked different. Somewhere along the way, Caesar had gotten face-piercings and sideburns.

"Seriously, bro." Rex squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're starting to make this 'new look' thing a habit," he mumbled. Did he really have to deal with him now, of all times? Rex tilted his head to the side, back towards his teacher. "What-happened? Why's Six out of it? ... Come to think of it, why was I out of it? We aren't at Providence, are we?" Alarm ballooned in Rex's chest, and he struggled to push himself up again.

"Calm down, Rex." Caesar let him manage to prop himself up this time, handing Rex a glass from a nearby table. "This isn't Providence, but you did just travel to a pocket dimension. The trip is hard on everyone."

Rex's eyebrows floated up. "A 'pocket dimension'?" Rex tried for a grin, and didn't fight when it became a grimace. He knew this story. "Seriously, 'bro'? Is this really the time to throw things like that back at me? Because I know this isn't new or anything, but I'd kind of like some answers, for once."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, _hermano_," replied Caesar, unsmiling. "But those were answers."

Rex opened his mouth to fire back a quip, closed it, and took the glass. It smelled strongly of lemon, and there were powdered traces of a juice mix at the bottom. Rex shook the glass slightly, trying to finish its blending.

"Why're we in a pocket dimension? And why's Six still out of it?" Rex swung his eyes up to his brother, untrusting. "I know who you work for. If this isn't Providence, then what, are they on their way?"

"This isn't Providence business, Rex," said that unnamed voice from before, and both Rex and Caesar jumped, looking over. "We're here because until we brought you here, you were in serious danger from another source, Rex. Lo siento, mijo-it was an emergency."

The source appeared, and Caesar walked out from behind a tall set of screens, his hair shorn down to a military trim. His face was hard, but wistful. Meanwhile, piercings-and-sideburns Caesar was still standing there by Rex's medical bed. Rex gaped, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"... Que _huh_? But-there's _two_ of you!" Rex pointed from one Caesar to another. "_Why_ are there two of you?!"

"Pocket dimension, Rex," The sideburn'd Caesar repeated, turning back to Rex. "we brought you here specifically because this place could handle more than one of us without complications."

Rex's worry spiked, and he automatically looked over at Six. "Complications? What kind of complications?"

"Nothing that you or Six need to worry about, hermanito," quickly reassured the second Caesar. Though there were stress lines across his forehead, his smile was gentle, and soothing. "Just focus on getting some rest. Your body is still trying to stabilize after the portal's transition. That's what Six is doing now."

"But he'll be okay, right?" Rex waved a hand. "That's what you mean? That huge-whatever it was, that portal thing-it's not going to have any side effects?"

The nearest Caesar looked thoughtful, but the buzz-cut one gave him another smile. "No, Rex. He'll be fine."

"Fine," Rex repeated slowly, looking from one Caesar to the other. Then he sighed, making a face. "I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. There's not much out I can do, is there?"

"You should go ahead and drink that, Rex," The closer Caesar said, gesturing to the glass. "It will balance your electrolytes."

"Yeah, yeah, I get the drill already," Rex grumbled, but lifted the drink anyway. After the first swallow he gagged.

"For the record? You guys seriously need better electro-whatsit drinks, here. The stuff my Caesar gave me wasn't anything like this."

The Caesars exchanged glances, and Rex frowned at them.

"Speaking of which, which one of you's my real brother? Unless-neither of you is? I mean, this is a pocket dimension, and both of you look pretty different from what I remember."

The two exchanged another pair of looks, and this time the exchange lasted a little longer. Then the Caesar with sideburns sighed.

"You're right, Rex. Your brother is still in your world."

"Okay... So send us back.. Or tell me what that 'danger' was that you mentioned just now. What's after me?" The glass in his hands wobbled unexpectedly, and Rex stifled a yawn.

"We'll tell you later, when more of us are back from searching," Said the Caesar with sideburns. "You'd better get some rest until then."

"I don't need rest, I need answers," Rex protested, face twisting as he held back another yawn. "Like why... am I suddenly this tired?" He dragged his eyelids back open and glared suspiciously at his brothers. "You... You put something in my drink!" He wanted to feel outraged, but all he could manage was sluggish irritation.

Against his will he felt his eyes slide shut, and the closest Caesar's hand shot out to catch the glass before it spilled. He felt hands push his head back against the pillow.

"It's just the fatigue from the transfer, Rex. Don't fight it. We'll explain everything when you wake up."

"I don't... want..." Rex mumbled. Before he could finish that sentence, he was out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Wake up, kid."

Rex woke slowly, and was dimly aware that someone was shaking him. He felt weak again, as though sleep had turned itself into a tangible blanket that was too heavy to move. It was just as well; the bed was comfortable, and he was tired enough that he would have been happy laying there forever.

"Five more minutes," Rex mumbled into the pillow, though it came out more '_Miff mr' mns_'.

Six's scowl was all but audible. "Save it for someone else, kid. We've got to get out of here."

Rex grimaced and turned his face completely towards the pillow, burrowing deeper into it. He was too tired. They could train later.

"Rex." Now Six's scowl was audible. Rex still didn't move.

All of a sudden, someone grabbed the back of Rex's collar and hauled him halfway off the bed, then dropped him back down. Rex made an honest attempt at yelping and gasping hugely at the same time, tumbling roughly into wakefulness. He tried to roll over to stave off further wakeup calls, and was tangled immediately in his blankets.

"I'm awake, I'm awake already!" Reluctantly, Rex pried his eyes open, and squinted blearily around. Like he'd thought, Six didn't look happy. Rex frowned back, struggling to stir his thoughts into something coherent. Memories of the most recent events came back slowly, and when they did, Rex's mood swung right around.

"Six!" Rex burst out, pushing himself up. "You're okay! I mean-sure, I knew you'd be okay, but-cool."

The corners of Six's mouth didn't twitch. "We have to get out of here. Something's very wrong."

"Wrong?" Rex looked around for the first time, and noticed that thick plastic curtains had been put around their hospital beds, as though for privacy. "Why, what's happened? Have you found out what's going on?"

Six strode to the nearest curtain, yanking it roughly back. "This is what's going on," he snapped.

Behind the dividing curtain was another bed-just one-and on it was a soundly sleeping Rex.

"Oh, come on!" Rex protested, freeing his legs from his blankets. "First there's two of them, and now there's two of me?"

"Two of them?" Six repeated.

"Caesars. According to them, we're actually in a pocket dimension right now. They said they brought me here to for my protection. You were probably just an accident."

"Figures," Six growled. "Only there's not just two of you. This entire room is filled with versions of you that are either sleeping, or unconscious."

"It's _what_?!"

Rex hauled himself out of bed and discovered his strange weakness hadn't quite left. With his arms half-out for balance, he staggered to the nearest curtain in the other direction. There was the same thing behind it as the first curtain-and the same thing behind the curtain after that, and the curtain after that.

"This is seriously messed up," Rex groaned.

"Glad we agree. Did they say anything about getting back?"

"No, they just said they'd explain later."

"They'd better."

The sound of sliding doors interrupted him from continuing further, and both Six and Rex lifted their heads like hounds sniffing the air.

"Rex?" someone called hopefully. It sounded like a Caesar. The only question was, which one?

Rex looked at Six, before calling, "We're over here."

Curtains pushed aside, before a skinny Caesar with intense, sorrowful eyes appeared. Rex didn't think it was his real brother, or the other two he'd met before. "What are you both doing over here?" the Caesar asked.

"We're just wondering why you seem to be collecting all kinds of alternate universe versions of me for fun, that's all," Rex answered sarcastically, waving a hand at the closest bed.

The Caesar seemed to wilt a little, and turned away. "We're not doing it for fun, Rex," he answered. Rex had never heard his brother's voice go so low, and he had to strain to hear. "There's something out there hunting versions of you down. We're trying to help."

A curl of guilt started in Rex's gut. Whoever this version of Caesar was, he looked like a tall, gangly version of a kicked puppy. "Well-sorry. But I don't understand. What is it that's after me? Or-after 'me's?" he corrected, waving abstractly at the surrounding room.

The Caesar was quiet for a long moment, turning away from them. He looked down one exposed row of beds, and then back the other way. "We think it's another Caesar. But we're not sure."

Six needed no further prompting. In a flash, he had an extended sword in each hand, and the Caesar jumped back around in surprise. "What makes you think we should trust you, if it's one of you that's doing this?"

"No, not me, not any of us!" The very idea seemed to repulse him, and he shook his head emphatically. To Rex's shock, the motion spilled moisture that had built up in the man's eyes, dripping down his face.

"It's not a Caesar that's here!" the Caesar insisted. "We're trying to save you, I swear it! We just need some more time to find the one that's still out there, and then we'll send you all back to your homes!" Caesar swiped his sleeve across his face, disappearing the tears. "We wouldn't subject anyone to losing you again, if we could help it. We-we've all already-" His voice cracked at whatever memories he was experiencing, and his mouth clamped shut, forming a thin, trembling line.

For a few seconds, Rex could do nothing but stare. Then he stepped forward, pity and awkwardness warring with equal measure inside of him.

"Hey, um... bro..."

Rex's concern was apparently too much. To the boy's horror, Caesar's face twisted and crumpled, before the man turned away and strode without a word in the direction he had come. Rex heard the door open, not close, and then fading footsteps.

Rex gaped after him. After a long pause, Six re-sheathed his swords, and Rex shook his head slowly.

"Whoa..." Rex sighed, looking over at his nearest sleeping copy with new eyes. "That was seriously weird. Caesar's always seemed so... 'together'. Well-" Rex corrected quietly, grimacing. "As together as anyone as weird as him ever is."

"I don't trust them," Six said, looking not at the doppelganger, but at Rex. "Telling the truth or not, the Caesar from our world already has a track record. Besides, even if that one's Rex really is dead, grief could make them dangerous."

"I know, Six," Rex said, waving a hand as though waving his words away. "It's just-I dunno, maybe they really are doing it for the reasons they say they are."

"Even then-all it takes is one of them to be lying for things to get dangerous. Any one of them could be the killer, and as long as we're here, they have all these Rex-es in one place. Why bring them together? Why not spread them out, instead of collecting them?"

"I dunno..." Rex said, looking around the room again. "I guess that does seem kind of weird..."

Six looked at him for a moment longer, before walking in the direction the previous Caesar had chosen. Rex followed, but before either of them reached the wall, a new voice entered the room. Or rather-a new Caesar.

"Hello? Rex, Six?"

With Six in the lead, they cleared the last set of curtains. Rex took in the new Caesar's appearance, before blurting out, "You're blind?"

Immediately Rex blushed and winced, putting a hand to the back of his neck. "I, uh, mean-"

Caesar laughed lightly, though Rex got the feeling that the gesture was hollow. "It's okay, Rex. What tipped you off, the cane or the goggles?" Caesar held his free hand out to shake.

"Um... Both," Rex replied, and after a moment stepped forward and took the hand.

The sudden tug on his wrist took him by surprise, and Rex found himself suddenly enveloped in Caesar's arms. The gesture was stronger than he'd ever felt from his own Caesar, to the point that it was almost crushing. Rex squirmed a little, before realizing that he could feel the faintest shudder surrounding him, and he stilled. Caesar was trembling. Reluctantly, Rex stayed where he was, supporting the Caesar both figuratively and literally as he shook.

Finally, after what felt like some of the longest, most uncomfortable minutes of his life, the Caesar's grip relented and Rex pulled away, trying to ignore the feeling that he'd narrowly escaped a pit of tar. To his surprise, Six was right there beside him, and the man put a hand on his shoulder possessively, leveling a dark frown at Caesar that he couldn't see.

"I suppose we should get going, then?" Caesar said unsteadily, flashing another smile before turning to the door. His cane hovered a few inches above the ground after they exited, and he trailed a couple of fingers along the wall, clearly knowing the way. "You two are the first to wake up... The rest will most likely take some more time."

"When are you planning on explaining to us the situation at hand?" Six cut in, trailing behind Caesar with Rex.

"Yeah," said Rex. "That last Caesar said something about how yet another one of you's out to get us?"

"He did?" The cane tapped the ground once. Then the wall. "He's basically right." Another tap. "You'll learn everything you need to know in the conference room. I'm afraid I actually don't know all the details of what's going on, myself."

"Really? Why don't you?" Rex pounced, hungry for information.

The Caesar turned his head slightly with a small laugh, letting Rex catch a glimpse of teeth. "I'm blind, Rex. It's not like I can look at their plans or notes myself."

Rex closed his mouth abruptly, wind taken from his sails. After a small pause, he said, "Oh."

The Caesar seemed unbothered, Six unconvinced, and nothing else was said until they reached an unremarkable door in the middle of a nearby side-hall. Caesar opened the door for them and entered first, giving Rex a moment to realize who was in the room:

Caesars. For a moment his eyes crossed a little, trying to focus on the sitting crowd of faces that all looked the same. He really should have seen this coming, Rex decided. When they were done here, Rex was going to avoid his brother like the plague-not that that was hard, these days. At least he had Six for variety, who'd apparently stopped just behind him, taking advantage of the same open glimpse into the room.

The room, which had been full of quiet conversations all spoken with the same voice, fell into a hushed silence at Rex's arrival. Suddenly all eyes (almost) were on him, and Rex stretched his face into an uncomfortable smile as the quiet crept on, feeling it take on an almost reverent quality.

'Like that's not creepy at all.'

"Uh, hi," he finally said, and it was as though something in the air snapped at the sound. The nearest Caesar twitched a little, before stiffly gesturing to some empty chairs. This Caesar was standing.

"Rex-and Six. Glad to have you both here. Sit down anywhere you like."

"I'll stand," Six answered flatly. Even though Rex had started forward at the Caesar's gesture, Rex thought it over after Six's words, before nodding in agreement.

"Me too."

"Suit yourself," the Caesar said, eyes traveling sadly from Six to Rex and back. Rex wondered what he was thinking, or what he and Six looked like. Six was his 'family'. Was this Caesar on better terms with his Rex than Rex was with his own brother? Was this Caesar's Rex even alive?

Six crossed his arms. Most of the Caesars matched him in height, a fact that would have made looming tricky for most people. Six loomed anyway.

"Is this the part where one of you finally tells us what's going on?"


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So I started out with the goal of updating once every week, and then promptly went 2+ weeks without a thing. Sorry! Here's two chapters, to make up for it.**

**Chapter 3**

_"Is this the part where one of you finally tells us what's going on?"_

Most of the Caesars had the grace to look abashed. There was a false start as some of the nearest ones started to talk at once, before the one who had offered them chairs actually spoke.

"Yes, it is. I'm sorry we've kept you waiting-we thought it would be best if we invited you to our planning room, so if any of you had questions that some of us couldn't answer, someone else would be able to."

"Really," Six said skeptically, looking around. "Which one of you here's the leader?"

The nearest Caesar shook his head. "We don't have a leader. We've organized ourselves into some hierarchies, but mostly we all vote on decisions."

"Who's in the highest?"

The Caesar looked at him for a moment, before he and a few others raised their hands. The first two Rex had met, with the piercings and the buzz cut, were included in this. Rex noticed that he couldn't spot the third Caesar at all, but was surprised when the blind Caesar raised his hand too.

"We've formed a sort of council," the nearest Caesar explained.

"Why are so many of you here?"

"Because all of us have lost our brother," said the Caesar with the buzz cut, who made his way closer towards the door. Taking after his example, the others who'd raised their hands also approached.

"And?" Six asked. "Are all of you actually necessary for-whatever this is' success?"

"We want to help," said the Caesar with piercings tonelessly. There were no tears in his eyes or twists to his expression-in fact, there wasn't much of anything.

"Haven't any of you heard of 'Too many cooks spoil the broth?'"

"Six..." Rex mumbled, watching the Caesars.

"We have," The same Caesar replied.

"We didn't think that time travel was a good option," explained the Caesar with the buzz cut, smiling self-depreciatingly. "There was too much we needed to do without at least doing something unusual, however. Through our efforts, we were able to isolate the sector of universes that were most at risk, and build the facilities and tools to bring them here as quickly as possible."

"Did it ever occur to you to talk to them, first? Or maybe the people around them? We've defended our universe from interdimensional psychopaths before."

"You may have dealt with Alpha," observed the Caesar with piercings. "But you have never dealt with one of us that's gone honestly crazy."

"I dunno, I'd say my Caesar's a little crazy..." Rex murmured, rolling his eyes. Then he realized that every nearby Caesar was looking at him again. "What'd I say?"

"Dangerously psychopathic versions of us are actually extremely rare, Rex," said the one with the buzz-cut. "If you'd actually encountered one before, not only would you probably already be dead, but so would most of the living population on earth."

"Alpha was an example of what happens when we're _not_ trying to kill people," said the Caesar by the door. "If you think that was bad, imagine what would happen if we tried."

"Meanwhile, none of you are doing a good job convincing me that you're not the killer," drawled Six.

There was a pause.

"I guess you'll just have to take our word for it," said the one by the door.

"All we want to do is keep you here until we can track down and deal with the real threat that killed our own brothers," the buzz-cut Caesar jumped in placatingly.

"Yes, and nothing else. We've built and are maintaining facilities that should be enough to house all of you until the full alert is over," said another Caesar that had raised his hand.

"You can stay with Rex if you want, Six-ah, this Rex, I mean. We knew that bringing them here would take these versions of our brother away from their homes, but that wasn't the point," said the one by the door, rubbing the back of his neck. "If we could've handled it logistically, we would've brought them _and_ their families, to protect everyone."

"But instead, you drugged and knocked the Rexs all out and abandoned them all without a guard posted watch?" Six pointed out incredulously. He shook his head, visibly disgusted. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that moving targets are harder than sitting ones, and you just made them all helpless."

"I've got to say, I kind of agree with Six on this one," Rex spoke up, crossing his arms also. "At least when I'm awake I can _try_ to defend myself."

Rex noticed that some of the Caesars were exchanging glances. When one began to speak quietly to the other in low, heated tones, Rex called out to him, "What?"

The Caesar looked at Rex without really seeing him, before sighing sharply.

"Why were we trying to arrange for them to all to sleep for the first day at the same time, again? I don't understand-"

He broke off as a general stir of movement went throughout the room, and whatever order there had been began to fracture. Some Caesars were grimacing, some were nodding with intent frowns. Rex got the feeling that this was an old question that hadn't ever really been resolved.

"-I don't understand," the Caesar repeated, "And why we don't just assign groups of ourselves to Rexs and look after them separately? Then we could do as Six said, and divide our selves to the point that we haven't just put all our eggs in one baske-"

"We can't do that, and you already know why!" said the Caesar by the door with surprising vehemence. Eyes that had been concerned and sad only moments before were suddenly burning with intensity, and the Caesar waved his arm with an aggressive energy Rex hadn't seen coming.

"We already know that one of us could be the murderer, and there's no way any of us can trust the other if we don't watch each other carefully!"

"We could set up a secure system of check-ins-" said the protesting Caesar bravely

"Which any one of us could beat with one hand behind our back and our eyes closed!" the one by the door shot back. "Are you forgetting that it's _us_? What next, an empirical and computer-run system to monitor us, instead? Have you completely lost it?!"

That last argument seemed to serve as a trigger, and several Caesars started talking at once, and then several more joined in the verbal fray. Rex watched the room degenerate into one big argument, unable to look away. He'd thought he'd seen his brother annoyed before, but as he watched the Caesar by the door stalk over to personally snarl at another version of himself, he realized that he'd never seen him _angry_.

Six put an awkward hand on his shoulder, and Rex leaned into it. He was wondering if they should leave, and start looking for a way back home on their own, when-

A shrill, buzzing, teeth-grinding shriek split the air, and everyone in the room paused what they were doing to cringe. The blind Caesar closed the little box he'd partially opened and tucked it away, holding his arms up for attention.

"All of you-we already agreed on what our course of action would be," he said quietly, and Rex didn't doubt for a minute that everyone in the room could hear him. "If you have complaints, you know who you're supposed to talk to. Until then, we have work to do!"

"He's right," said the buzz-cut Caesar, looking relieved. "Meanwhile, we should show our guests here where they'll be staying. One oh four-" he pointed to a Caesar seemingly at random, "And I will go check on the Rex's, and organize a guard shift in addition to our current surveillance schedules."

"I'll show them the rooms," said the blind Caesar, waving vaguely in Rex and Six's direction. "The rest of you-we have our plans."

That seemed to be enough of a signal for everyone to start making their way to their feet, and Rex backed up against the wall, letting versions of his brother exit past him while he waited for their guide.

The walk was filled mostly by aimless talking from their guide, and their rooms were nothing to write home about. Or, more accurately put, their 'room' wasn't. It was a huge warehouse-like affair, with bunk-beds that stretched up to three tiers high. Rex wondered what it would be like to meet other versions of himself, and then wondered if the Caesars had thought through the consequences of putting that much concentrated chaos into one room for a night. They probably hadn't, he decided. Six, he noticed, took the bunk directly below his. marking it by cutting a large '6' onto the bedspread. The Caesar jumped and almost seemed as though he might ask after the sound, but said nothing when Six shot him a challenging look. Rex wondered if the Caesar was really as blind as he said he was. Then he realized: Six's glare was just heavy. No one needed sight to feel its weight.

After that, the Caesar gave Rex and Six general directions to the nearest bathrooms, the mess hall, the nearest 'outdoors recreational center', and then the Caesar left. Rex started for the door as soon as he was gone, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay close," said Six.

"Come on, Six..." Rex complained, shrugging the hand off after a moment. "It's not like I was going to go running headfirst into the closest serial killer. I just need some air! And food. Aren't you hungry?"

Six didn't answer, and when Rex left the room the man trailed some distance behind. This was probably his idea of giving him 'space', Rex thought, and even though the hovering bothered him a little, it was also reassuring. Even in a crazy place like this, Six had his back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The mess hall was empty when he got there, but the kitchens behind it weren't.

"Hello?" Rex called, looking around. He spotted someone washing by the dishes, but blinked hard when he realized that the person was made entirely of metal. They were also featureless and dressed in formless aprons. Looking around, he noticed at least two more metal people, doing similarly menial tasks. "Um... hello? Anyone in here but me and-robots?" he hazarded.

"Rex?" A Caesar called, standing up from behind a counter. Like Rex and Six's guide, he was wearing black goggles. Or maybe he was the guide. "Is that you?"

Rex nodded, and the Caesar lifted his goggles, smiling at him in a bland, cheerful way that was almost painfully familiar. (Probably not their guide, if he could see.)

"It's good to see you, little brother. What are you doing here?"

"Six and I-" Rex glanced around, and realized that Six hadn't entered the room with him. "Okay, I was hungry, and Caesar-I mean, the one with... you know, the cane?"

"His number is 81," Caesar said easily. "I'm 152. It helps us tell each other apart if we number ourselves, since we're all technically the same person."

"Oh. Numbers, huh?" Rex grinned. "If Six knew that, I bet he'd feel right at home."

"He might," said the Caesar agreeably, and he leaned against a counter. He had to move when the robot beside him carried a stack of dishes to the cupboards behind him, and Rex followed it with his eyes.

"Did you guys make these?"

"The cleaning robots? Yes," Caesar said, smiling again. This time it was a little sad. "We've built a lot to help us look after this place, for all that it's temporary. If we wanted, we could probably go back home make a fortune in the domestic maintenance and construction industries. But you didn't come here to listen to me ramble. Is there anything in particular that you want to eat?"

"Um-"

Caesar picked up a plate from inside a little box on the counter, lifting it for him to see. Rex broke off and looked at it, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "... Meatloaf and mashed potatos?" he said, though the food was obvious to both of them.

"We did some surveys, and that was one of the most common favorite dishes our Rexes had," said the Caesar proudly. "I've been keeping this in one of our new experimental storage units. It's still warm."

"Uh... Thanks," Rex said, stepping forward and taking the plate. Some silverware wrapped up in a napkin was tucked into one of his hands on the way.

He unwrapped a fork, but stopped with it halfway to his plate. "Wait... this stuff doesn't have anything weird in it, does it?"

"I'll taste it if you want."

"No offense, but... could you?"

The Caesar got a fork, walked around the counter, and patiently sampled each of the things on his plate, before returning to his side of the kitchen.

"Thanks," Rex mumbled, now embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. I was listening to a feed of the meeting you had earlier." The Caesar frowned. "Is it true that they're drugging some of you?"

"Yeah," Rex said. "I think I was probably one of the guys they drugged." He stabbed at his meatloaf, noting absently that it was slightly better than Bobo's had eventually become. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

When Rex looked up again, he realized that Caesar had disappeared under the counter again, and was probably working on whatever he'd been doing before.

"Hey, uh... Caesar-how did-81-you know-?"

"How did 81 lose his sight?" the Caesar supplied without getting up. "I'm not sure. It's not exactly common knowledge, but I'd say that the strongest suggestion circulating is that he lost it in whatever accident killed his Rex."

"Oh," Rex said, disturbed by how offhand the Caesar had said all of that. "That's nice."

Caesar 152's tone had become dry. "There's not much nice about it. He's had to become used to the memories of what was likely a violent deprivation of one a human's most important senses, as well as a change in identity twofold: one towards that of a disabled individual, and the other to someone who is now completely and utterly alone." There was a pause, and Caesar's voice grew thoughtful, and softer. "Most of us have had to suffer at least one change in identity before coming here. Some horrible injury, the loss of parents or friends... I think the one most common here is probably the loss of you."

"The way the others talked about it, I thought everyone here was missing a Rex," Rex pointed out, uncomfortable. Part of him wondered what it had been like for his brother when their parents died, and if it was anything like this Caesar was describing. Another part of him wondered if the way his Caesar and him weren't on speaking terms counted as having 'lost' each other. These were sobering questions.

"Not me," said Caesar 152 cheerfully. "My Rex is alive."

"Uh-really?" Rex said, surprised.

"Of course. My Rex is alive."

Rex hesitated, sensing something off. Not something dangerous to him, but something depressing, and tragic. His words had sounded like a broken recording, being played over and over in hopes of making it true. Rather than deal with it, Rex picked at his suddenly tasteless meatloaf, ignoring how conscious he was that the kitchen was devoid of human life, but for himself and the Caesar.

"So... what about the others?" Rex said slowly.

"The other members on the council? The ones you talked with were 235, 72, 23, and 44. 235 used to work with military applications for nanites and intelligent systems. 72 never went into science the same way most of us did, but tried business instead. He was the angry one." There was a slight pause, and Rex imagined him rolling his eyes.

"23 was there, but she's very quiet compared to most of us. You probably didn't notice her."

"She?" Rex repeated in surprise, wishing he could see his brother through the counter. "There's girl versions of you, here?"

The Caesar sounded amused. "There's a few. For some reason, however, they haven't been very common. Maybe something about the Rexes from their universe have made them safe from whatever patterns we noticed being followed.:

Caesar went on. "44 was the one with the piercings. He deals with a lot of the construction and health regulations." A slight pause, different from before. "He also has a mild problem with substance abuse. Unless we have pharmacists and doctors in with us somewhere-which we probably do-he would have had at least some knowledge in what sort of ways to sedate the other versions of you."

Rex doubted he would remember most those numbers in another ten seconds, but number 44 was one he would make sure not to forget. Hadn't 44 been the one to give him that cruddy lemonade?

"What about 81?" Rex asked. "What did he do before all of this?"

"Research. In psychiatry and neurology," Caesar clarified.

"Neurology..." Rex repeated, drawing the word out thoughtfully. He picked at the mashed potatoes for a little while longer, as the room lapsed back into silence. He'd gotten a lot of food for thought. Then he set his plate to one side, sliding off the counter.

"Well-I'm going to go keep exploring. Um..."

"152."

"Yeah-see you around.

"Bye, Rex. Wait-Rex?" The Caesar stood up and lifted his goggles again. "There's probably going to be a lot of different versions of you around, soon. Is there a specific number you'd like me to know you as?"

"Uh..." said Rex, frowning. Then he grinned, sarcastic humor playing around the expression. "Why don't we just go with 'That not-sleeping Rex', for now?"

The Caesar smiled a little back. "That's fine. I'll see you later." Then he disappeared behind the counter again.

Rex left.

Hours grew into a day, and eventually Rex and Six went back to the dorms they'd been shown. Rex saw Six eating an apple that he'd somehow managed to swipe while Rex had been talking with the Caesar, so they didn't back to the kitchens that day, and turned in early. Rex privately doubted that Six slept at all that night, even though he certainly looked sound asleep when Rex accidentally woke up earlier than he'd planned. Rex looked around for whatever it was that had woken him and noticed a Caesar at the other end of the room, helping a stumbling and exhausted looking Rex climb into a bottom bunk. Rex stared, wondering if he was still dreaming, and when the Caesar had left, Rex crept past Six and went to where his doppelganger was.

When he got there, the Rex was sound asleep, and he didn't look well. Rex could see dark shadows under his eyes and cheekbones that Rex instinctively knew meant his face was ashen, even if the dim light made it hard to tell for sure. Putting his appearance aside, Rex called out to him softly. Then he called louder. When neither of those had any effect, he shook the bedframe slightly, before stepping back and deciding that this Rex probably needed his sleep. Rex went back to bed.

The next day saw a scattered few more Rexes wandering the halls, though all of them looked unwell, or exhausted. Rex wondered if he looked that way too. He didn't feel tired or sick-just stressed. Rex stopped and talked with a few of them. It was weird at first, but when the novelty wore off, Rex realized that none of them really knew anything he didn't: a giant circle had brought them there, and then suddenly, medical beds and Caesars everywhere. The only difference between him and them seemed to be that his Six was with him, and he wasn't feeling sick.

The morning wasn't completely uneventful, though Rex could have done without the micro-events: at least three Rexes rushed up to Six in hopeful excitement, before realizing that he wasn't the one from their own universe. They left soon after, visibly depressed. Rex watched them go with a strange chill in his gut, before turning his jacket inside out, trying to make himself more visibly different from the other Rexes. He noticed Six relax just the slightest after that, and Rex stayed deliberately closer to him afterwards. It helped the chill of this strange place's loneliness lessen. Slightly.

There were no loud meetings with a room full of Caesars that day, but Rex did get another uncomfortably cling-y hug from Caesar 81 when the passed each other in the hall at around lunch time. Privately, Rex wondered how on earth he'd been able to identify him, since Rex hadn't been the only version of himself in the hall at the time.

Breakfast was taken in the kitchen, and after realizing that he'd heard all of the gossip he was interested, lunch and dinner were in the cafeteria. Caesar 152 was closer to his original brother than most of the others, but he wasn't close enough, and there was something unnerving about the similarities, besides.

That second night, Rex woke to a scene even more surreal than the night before: quietly, dozens of Rexes were gently assisted to various cots around the room, some of them more awake than others. There was no talking between the Rexes. It was as though each one were too exhausted, or too distracted to even notice anyone besides themself and the Caesar with them existed. Rex feigned sleep whenever anyone passed near his bunk, and when the strange, dream-like procession into the room was over, he scooted back on his mattress until his back was press up against the wall. Just as he was drifting back off to sleep, he thought he heard Six shift around in the bunk below his, having been awake to see the same thing.

The third day saw the halls and facilities full of Rexes. Rex had thought that the added company would have livened the place up, but he was wrong. If anything, the place was creepier than ever: it was like every version but him was a zombie. Whatever strange illness the other Rexes were weathering, it was taking their toll. Meanwhile, Rex was the only one who seemed unaffected. Feeling strangely exposed by this, Rex took to slouching and pretending he'd just eaten five tacos more than he should have, for lack of any other ideas. With Six following him around like a guardian nanny tax-auditor, it was unlikely he'd ever stop standing out in the crowds, but at least he might look a little less conspicuous.

Looking inconspicuous was a good thing: with no one else to talk to and all the common areas thoroughly exhausted, Rex and Six took to trying to explore the less obviously open areas of the building. Some doors were locked with something electronic, which Rex was able to help open. None of those rooms had anything important in them, and were mostly storage areas. Some of the doors had common key-locks, but aside from some empty rooms full of technical-looking equipment that was powered down, they seemed abandoned.

The third night had a smaller flow of new Rexes, and it started and ended earlier than any of the others. Rex wondered if that was the last of them. It probably was.

All the bunks were full.


	5. Chapter 5

**__**

**Chapter 5**

-

The fourth day brought disturbing news: whatever was wrong with the Rexes was more serious than Rex had thought.

Rex was eating lunch in the cafeteria when it happened. The cafeteria had served tamales that day, and a Rex at a table across from Rex's dropped his lunch, hitting his head to the table with a _thud_ that clattered everything around him. He was unconscious.

Six got up from his seat, and was checking the Rex's pulse when a Caesar arrived.

"He's not responding," Six said, lowering his hand. "He needs medical attention."

"I'll see that he gets it, right away," the Caesar said faintly, visibly distressed. He picked up the Rex and slung him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry, hurrying him away.

Muttered questions and conversations resumed slowly after that. Though the conversations hadn't been particularly lively before, at this point they were outright subdued. Rex could see a number of versions of him leaving without finishing, and after a moment's consideration, he and Six left early, too. They spent the rest of the day searching for clues or ways to get home, but found nothing.

They were about to go back to the dormitories for the evening when a staticky crackle hissed, and an intercom system made itself known. From the sound of it, it was all over the facility.

"Attention all versions of Rex Salazar. Please report to the dormitory in an orderly fashion. Versions of Caesar Salazar will be there to answer questions and to conduct some basic health checkup routines to ensure your continued safety and health. I repeat-please report..."

Rex and Six exchanged glances.

"Suspicious sickness and sudden checkups? Considering that they were the ones who brought us here in the first place, I think I'll pass," Rex said darkly.

Six's lack of reply was a reply of its own, and without a word they turned at the next corner, picked the lock on the first door they could find, and locked it behind them.

Rex looked around the room, before going to the nearest air vent, climbing a desk to reach it.

"What are you doing?" Six asked.

Rex turned, knocking some pencils over by accident. "We're not that far from the dorms-maybe these air vents connect to the ones over them."

Six turned towards him. "To spy on them?"

"Uh, duh? It's not like I'll catch anything I haven't already been exposed to, and if they actually answer anything, I want to listen."

Six climbed up on the desk beside him while Rex transformed an arm into a Smack Hand, ripping the vent-grate off. (The desk creaked unhappily at the extra weight, but held.)

"I'll go first," Six said over his shoulder, already hoisting himself up to the vent. Rex followed.

-

The vents did connect with the ones above the dormitory. The grates that opened to the room were narrow, and difficult to see through, and Rex was tempted to pry one off and poke his head through to get a good look at more than was immediately below each grate. The noise alone that would have been involved with this made it impossible, but he couldn't help but toy with the idea a few seconds more, before focusing on what he could see.

Only a fraction of the top bunks below him were actually full. Some of these were probably because there were Rexes standing beside their bunks and instead of in them, holding still while a Caesar waved some kind of scanning device at them, but even then Rex noticed that there were far too few versions of him compared to how many there should have been. Maybe they'd all taken to doing what Rex had done, and bailed or snuck in to spy? He hadn't seen anyone else in the air ducts, but that didn't mean much. It was hard to see anything in such darkness.

When Rex looked up again, Six had crept towards a grate several openings away, and lying flat with his ear pressed against down. Rex crawled over to join him as quietly as he could, and realized that he could just see a small group of Rexes surrounding one Caesar.

"...pow, just passed out too! He just _crashed_, like that kid in the cafeteria!"

"Yeah, Caesar. We're dropping like flies, here! You _have_ to send us back. Until you do, we'll just keep getting worse than we ever were back home!"

"What he said! I passed two versions of me in the hallway that were out. Whatever's after us, it's already here!"

"All of you, just calm down," the Caesar cut in, holding his hands up as though to muffle the onslaught. Rex could only see the top of his head, and he wasn't sure if his hair was slick with gel, or sweat. "There's nothing on this base that wants to hurt you. We just have some accidental interdimensional versions of the flu that your immune systems are having trouble coping with. We're working on antibodies to give you right now-"

"Interdimensional flu, my butt!" A Rex cut in, waving his hand dismissively. "That's total _mierda_ and you know it! And even if you didn't, you shouldn't have brought us here in the first place! If you hadn't, then we wouldn't be getting it at all!"

"I know that this situation isn't the most optimal," The Caesar began again, and was drowned out by an outcry of scoffs and jeering complaints, which swelled like a tide until he tried talking again. Rex and Six continued listening for a while longer, before moving on to the next vent, but no matter where they went, they didn't hear anything else new.

"Do you think I should get whatever antibodies they make for this flu?" Rex asked Six quietly, mindful of the room below. "I mean-it could just be some sort of hoax, but what if it's not?"

Six studied the room below them for a moment longer, before shaking his head.

"If this were an actual interdimensional flu, then why are the Rexes the only ones coming down with it?"

"Maybe the Caesars are actually getting sick, too," Rex said doubtfully. "It's not like we've ever seen all of them at once."

"Maybe. If that's it, though then why are we still healthy?"

"Um..." Rex frowned in thought. "... Maybe we're the flu's source?"

Six looked back down through the grate. "If that's the case, then we probably don't need a vaccine."

"Oh."

Six shifted where he was, somehow managing to sit cross legged in a space that forced him to remain almost completely doubled over.

"Get comfortable. I'll keep watch for anything that might find us here, and wake you when the examinations are done."

Rex nodded, stretching out on the clean duct's surface. It was hard to get to sleep, but something told him that he might not get a chance to rest again soon, so he tried.

-

Rex had finally begun to drift off into a sort of sluggish stupor when a subtle change in sound brought him back to full wakefulness with a jolt. Turning to look around in the darkness, all he saw was Six, who was still sitting in the same position as before, either unbothered by the discomfort or not caring. He was still looking through the vent grate. Rex crawled closer, whispering, "See anything yet?"

Six shook his head, but jabbed a finger down towards the room below. Rex looked through the grate.

A Rex was just entering their narrow range of view, looking around. The room was dark, with the lights dimmed as though to simulate night time. The Rex called hoarsely out, sounding as though this weren't the first time he'd done so. He reached the bunks immediately below the vent. On impulse, the Rex kicked the bunk, causing it to shiver from the blow.

"Hey," the Rex called, voice rising to a sickly shout. "Wake up already!"

There must have not been the response he was looking for, since the Rex suddenly darted forward, seizing the nearest Rex and dragging him forward. Almost as soon as he had, the Rex recoiled from the sleeping copy with a strangled cry, cringing with his whole body.

"Oh god..." the Rex cried. The Rex he'd grabbed still hadn't moved, and had in fact flopped rather bonelessly to lay when the shouting Rex dropped him. Rex-in-the-airducts had a sudden horrible feeling about what it meant.

"_Wake up_!" The Rex below them bellowed, kicking the mattress across from the first. He shoved at a Rex on a second bunk, and wheeled away in absolute revulsion again. "Wake up, _everyone_! Something's wrong-I think we're dying!" His voice cracked on that last word, and Rex felt the world around him go numb. The Rex below staggered out of sight, overwhelmed by horror, and Rex could hear him continue trying to rouse anyone, but it seemed somehow muted, as though he were a TV and someone had lowered the volume.

Rex was pulled out of his shock by the distant sound of someone close by talking, and eventually felt a hand on his neck. Rex jerked back in surprise, but Six was checking his pulse, with a face grim enough to have been chiseled from stone.

"... You're healthy," he observed.

"And they're _not_!" Rex retorted, balling his hands into fists. "We should've been doing something, not just looking around! We have to do something now! Maybe we can-"

"Do what?" Six cut in darkly. "Continue exploring, and hope the Caesars conveniently have a cure just lying around that they haven't brought out to try, yet?"

Rex bit his lip hard, before stumbling on, "We could... We could ask Dr Holiday..."

"Which would require us getting out of this universe, and into any other," Six replied without missing a beat.

"Dammit, Six!" Rex hissed, pounding a fist on the vent and not caring how loud the noise was. "We can't just sit here and let them _die_!"

Six scowled. "Cool it, kid. I don't like this anymore than you do, but unless you have a plan, I don't see how there's any way we can help."

Rex looked away, forcing the horrified jumble in his head into clumped stacks. He wasn't calm, but as the only healthy Rex, versions of him were counting on him to do something. The only question was, what?

Seconds ticked by, Rex looked back at the vent, then at Six, and then at the room below the Vent. He cringed again: the body was still lying there, twisted in a position no living person would have willingly tolerated for long. Rex closed his eyes, and lifted his head to only see things that were in the vent.

"... We could go look for whatever Caesars are looking for a cure. There might still be enough Rexes to save, if we're fast enough."

"And what good would we do? Neither of us are doctors-"

"I know that, let me finish!" Rex interrupted. "We're not doctors, but some of them might be. There has to be a reason why I'm not coming down with this 'flu' thing, so maybe they can-I don't know, find whatever it is, and make more of it."

Six looked down through the vent, before nodding.

"Let's go."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Well, that was certainly an unexpected hiatus. Sorry about that.**

**Chapter Six**

The halls, when they finally reached them, had an eerie silence to them that had everything to do with the disturbing lack of living people in them. They came across a fallen Rex early on, but aside from Six nudging his head to a more comfortable position with his boot, neither of them stopped. Dead, or unconscious-either way, there was nothing they could do.

It was a twisted parody of the routine they'd kept the last few days, except instead of opening doors they pounded on them with their fists, calling out 'Caesar!'s and "Hello?'s. They found more fallen Rexes along the way, and hurried a little faster each time they did, until eventually they were jogging from one door to another, and then running.

Rex broke off in shouting at the next door when Six abruptly lifted a hand, making a quelling gesture. Rex fell silent immediately, straining his hearing. There! A sound-not a voice, but an electric beep.

Rex slapped a hand on the door's lock (which was card-based), and made short work of it. The lock clicked open, and Six opened the door a crack-and froze. Rex leaned over to try and peer around the gap over his shoulder, but Six put a hand between his collar bones without turning, holding him back.

"Don't look."

"Six?" Rex asked, something like dread turning his blood cold. There was a strange, musty, metallic smell oozing out of the room, and he had a horrible feeling that he knew what it was. "What's going on? What's in there?"

Six closed the door with a precise 'click', shutting out the smell. "There were Caesars in there. They're all dead."

"Dead?!" Rex repeated, aghast. "But-the flu wasn't affecting them earlier!"

"They were cut and shot apart." Six started walking again, his pace fast and efficient. "Whatever's killing the Rexes is also after the Caesars."

"But-that's impossible!" protested Rex, mashing the heels of his hands against his eyes. "How could anyone get past an entire base full of geniuses on high alert?!"

"'Genius' doesn't mean combatant here, Rex."

Rex had no response for that.

They continued searching, but now Rex's calls were quieter, and more often than not they simply listened at the door. The base seemed abandoned, now, and the silence pressed oppressively in from all directions. When they finally came to a door where Rex's 'Hello?' was met with startled movement from the other side, both Rex and Six froze.

"Rex?!" came a muffled reply, cracking and hysterically unsteady. Rex heard a cough, along with stumbling and a lot of little impacts. The lights were out through the door: whoever was in there, they were in the dark.

Six drew his swords, and Rex transformed his arms into Smack Hands. Both of them moved away from the door, ready for whatever came out of it.

The lock fumbled, and was shakily cracked open.

"Rex? Hello-Rex? Is that you?"

A Caesar stood in the opening. His goggles were askew, a cane was just barely visible, and the parts Rex could see of his face were blotchy and tearstained. He'd been crying just now-a lot.

"It's me," Rex said, and the Caesar gave a sudden cry, lunging forward from the door. Six darted forward, but Rex reached him first in the confined space, holding him at bay with a Smack Hand. The Caesar reached the hand-and threw his arms around it, breaking down into heartbroken tears and clinging to it like a lifeline in a storm. Rex almost pulled his hand back at the sight, but the motion dragged the Caesar closer, so he stopped.

Six leveled a blade at the Caesar's neck. "What were you doing in there?"

"S-Six?" The Caesar stuttered, slowly turning his head. "Are you here too?"

"Answer me!" Six let the blade come in contact with his neck, pressing hard enough to show its edge. The Caesar froze, and for a moment there Rex wondered if he'd stopped breathing. Then he started again, smiling bitterly and clinging to the hand as desperately as he had before.

"I-I was trying to help the doctors come up with a cure," he whispered. "I'm-not a pathologist, but I do have a medical degree... I wanted to do something..."

"Well you're in luck," Rex put in quietly. "So do we."

"Is there anyone else alive but you?" the scientist asked, and then the Caesar shuddered, pressing his forehead against lower digit of one of Rex's fingers. Rex extended the digits as far from each other as they could go, torn between the urge to recoil from the sight of his brother sobbing like this, and the gut-curling pity he felt for him.

"We haven't been checking," Six answered. "We thought it would be best to arrive here as soon as possible, instead of wasting time along the way."

"But both of you are okay?" the Caesar breathed hopefully.

"Yeah," Rex said, making a fist with his free hand as though to show off his bicep. "For some weird reason, we're both still as healthy as when we came here."

There was a small silence. When Rex moved a giant finger to see Caesar's face, he found the blind man was smiling rapturously, face still pressed into his hand.

"... I'm very glad, Rex."

Six moved, and Rex trusted the older man's instincts. jumped back instinctively, and all in the same second there was a deafening BANG, and all the lights went out.

"SIX, JUMP!" Rex shouted, swinging his arms around flat, at waist level. He didn't hit anything, and started to feel the ground. "SIX!?"

Another BANG blasted Rex back, this one much closer than before. His head hit the wall behind him sharply, and he detransformed to curl into a defensive ball, clutching his head. Stars were exploding in his vision, and a great roaring in his ears almost blocked out one last BANG.

He knew no more.

He knew something was wrong before he was awake enough to consciously think it. It was in the sound of the room around him, in the smell of the air. It was in the way his memories fought back as he tried to grasp them, and the way the surface he was on rattled faintly, as though he were moving. He was strapped down.

Rex cracked his eyes open, and saw nothing but darkness. The surface under him was cold, and it sounded and felt like he was on some sort of surgical table that was being wheeled through a hallway. They were going slowly-probably due to the noise the table made. The facility around them was thunderously quiet. Rex couldn't even hear the air conditioning system that he'd taken for granted until now, and each sound the table made sounded like firecrackers by comparison. Rex wondered dimly how far the sounds carried.

Rex urged his brain to move faster, sliding his gaze sightlessly around. What had happened? Was there something wrong with his eyes, or was the room-hall?-they were in simply dark? Who would walk around in the dark like this? Someone didn't need sight-someone who was blind... bit by bit, memories trickled back to him, until the last bits came all at once. Rex knew who was pushing the table.

"Caesar!"

He heard the Caesar jump, and imagined him smiling slightly. "Hello, Rex."

"Caesar, let me go! Get me out of this thing-what are you doing?!"

"Go back to sleep, Rex," The Caesar replied, tossing a blanket-like cloth over Rex's face. Since his arms were pinned to the table, there was nothing Rex could do about it, though he tried anyway. His nanites didn't respond, even when he gritted his teeth and strained; somehow, they'd been blocked. "I'll take care of everything," Caesar added.

"Yeah, like you took care of all those other Rexes!? I have to break it to you, but they died! And it was all because of you, wasn't it?"

The table slowed. "They were all accidents," the Caesar whispered. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I hadn't planned for them to turn out that way."

"Well that's too bad," Rex growled back, straining against his restraints. "Because they did!"

"They should never have been here," Caesar said more quietly, before seeming to shake himself, and resumed pushing the table. "Their deaths were tragic, but I should have known they wouldn't survive. I blame myself."

"What happened to them, Caesar? What did you do to them?"

"It was an accident," the Caesar said insistently. "All of you were injected with a cocktail of gene-modifiers and antibodies, to protect you from anything that you might not have been able to handle from my universe!"

"Your universe?" Rex repeated incredulously, going temporarily still.

"Of course," the Caesar said, as though it were obvious. "I brought you all here for a reason, Rex. I was trying to prepare you, to see which one was closest to the Rex from my world."

"The Rex from your world? But he's-..." Rex broke off, pieces falling together to paint a horrible, vivid picture. "...Dead. Your Rex is dead. You weren't trying to protect us-you were trying to replace the one you lost, weren't you?"

Rex couldn't see his face, but Caesar's silence told it all. Fury surged within Rex, and he threw himself against the restraints, snarling through the cloth.

"Dammit, Caesar, that's not how it works! You don't get to just take someone else's version of me when yours dies, like spare tires for some car!"

"That's not what I'm doing!" Caesar cried back, putting his hands down hard on the table beside Rex's head. "You don't understand what it was like, Rex. You forgot what it was like to have family. You can't even remember anyone long enough to get attached! _I_ never forgot! When I thought I'd lost you that first time, it almost killed me. And when I lost you in my world's Accident-I was destroyed!"

"So?" Rex snapped viciously. "I still don't see how that gives you the right to kidnap and kill an entire base full of Rexes and Caesars!"

"It gives me the right to do anything, I want," Caesar said, voice dropping to a low, furious level. "You're forgetting again-if I can do anything, then who's going to stop me? More Caesars? Ha! Haha. If you honestly believed they were in all this without any kind of ulterior motive, then you're just as _loco_ as you think I am."

"No," whispered Rex in reply. "You're wrong. They weren't all in it for themselves," Rex said, thinking of the ones he'd met. They were all dead, now, from the skinny one that had burst into tears to the helpful one in the cafeteria.

"Rex. You saw them at that meeting. You know the only reason they didn't start dividing up the Rexes between themselves? There weren't enough of you. Someone would've had to share."

"No," Rex said more forcefully, grinding his teeth. "That wasn't all of them. Maybe some, but not all. There might be versions of Caesar out there that're screwed up like you, but the rest of them that I talked with didn't want me! They were mourning, like normal people, and I can't tell you how wrong it feels to say the words 'Caesar' and 'normal' in the same sentence around you!"

There was a brief silence. Caesar took his hands away from beside Rex's ears, patting him on the head.

"Oh, Rex," Caesar sighed fondly. "You'll come around. It's good to have you back, little brother."

Rex felt like something inside of him was going to explode, and he ground his teeth against it, shaking the hand from his head furiously. "Did you even hear a thing I just said?!"

"Of course I did. I-"

Caesar's words were interrupted by a distant explosion. The scientist fell silent, and then started pushing the table again.

"What was that?" Rex demanded.

"Nothing," Caesar answered uneasily, and then muttered, "Most likely Six."

"Six?" Rex repeated, and then took in a huge breath. "SIX! SIIIIIX! OVER HERE-"

"Rex, be quiet!" Caesar hissed, clamping surprisingly strong hands over Rex's face. "If he hears us, he'll try to kill-"

At an even greater distance, Rex heard a strange rumbling, as though a small corner of a building had been tipped over. Both Salazars froze, listening. The moment didn't last long: running footsteps replaced the dying echoes, and Caesar abandoned trying to keep Rex quiet, hurrying along the wall to the double doors they'd almost reached.

"SIX!" Rex shouted, shaking his head to dislodge the cloth draped over it. "HURRY UP, HE'S TRYING TO TAKE ME SOMEWHERE!"

The cloth over Rex's face fell, but this time he could faintly see the moving shadows and outlines of the room around him. Six must have been carrying a flashlight.

"Six! Watch out!" Rex called. The footsteps were almost to them.

"Stay back!" Caesar cried, and Rex heard one of the same deafening BANGs from before. The flashlight went out and the sound blasted out as though it had tangible form. Rex heard ringing in the instant that followed.

Through the noise in his ears he distantly heard an impact, and a choked sound of pain. Then a sharp BANG, and then the sound of someone bursting past double doors. Footsteps followed whoever it was, and the hall rang again, this time with the sudden silence. Mind twisting and turning with worry, Rex worked at the straps keeping him in place, making another attempt to reach his nanites. To his surprise, access came readily this time. They still felt sluggish, but he didn't question it, and his arms surged out in a pair of glowing Fun-chucks. Blue light spilled from them over the empty hallway.

"Six, hold on!" Rex shouted, jerking around towards the door. Before he could reach it, Six strode back through the doors, looking disgusted.

"He got away."

"He what?!"

"A hidden door. He took one."

"Dammit!" Rex swung his fun-chucks angrily into the floor, where they left craters. Then he de-transformed one of his arms, keeping the other one as a light source. "We can't just let him go-what now, Six?"

"We're not going to find him unless we can draw him out. Any ideas?"

"Yeah," answered Rex grimly. "He's obsessed with using me to replace his dead version of me."

Six looked at him, eyebrows twitching down. His frown deepened. "... We can use this."

Rex grimaced, but nodded.

"This way," said Six, leading the way down the corridor in the direction he came. Still carrying the hall's new light source, Rex followed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter** **7**

Their plan was simple. Since the power had been cut from half the base while Rex was unconscious, Rex and Six backtracked their way to one of the doors they had seen early on in their stay. Although empty of people at the time, the room had had a wall complete covered with fuseboxes, and as well as a number of powered down computers that hadn't turned on when they'd tried Unwilling to call attention to themselves, they had left the electric system alone, but now they sought it out deliberately, stopping every now and then to listen. Each time they did, the base around them was quiet. At least right then, they were alone.

"Let's take a look at what's going on here, shall we?" Rex said when they arrived, detransforming his remaining fun-chuck and putting his hands on a computer. Bright lines streamed out from his fingers and threaded their way around the casing, disappearing inside and following the cables. All was still, and Rex's game smile gave way to a small frown as he focused.

"I'm rerouting power around some damaged cables," Rex mumbled. "I think that Caesar might've cut some parts on purpose, because there's this entire set of rooms I can't access."

"Do it," Six said, before both of them froze. Something had moved down the hall, and they could faintly hear footsteps.

"That was fast," Rex muttered, taking his hands away from the computer. The light from his hands disappeared at once, and Rex quickly transformed a pair of funchucks, bringing light back into the room. Six drew his swords silently and arranged himself beside the door, while Rex planted himself squarely in the center of the room.

"Hello?" Rex called when they were ready. "Is someone out there?"

The footsteps paused. "... Rex?" Caesar's voice called. "Rex-is that you?"

Rex didn't reply, but readied his funchucks. The footsteps picked up again, fast enough to almost be jogging.

"Stay there, Rex-I'll go to you!"

The footsteps approached the door quickly. When it opened, Rex had all of a split second to take in Caesar with goggles, and a large, bazooka-like weapon in his arms, before Six was darting forward in a green blur, blades flashing in the dim light. Metal sang on metal to score the weapon's side, and a shower of sparks traveled with it as it fell to the ground.

"Six, stop!" Caesar shouted, falling back out of the room. Six dove through the door after him, and Rex took off in close pursuit. He arrived just in time to see Six drive Caesar to the ground, holding an unwavering sword point to his throat.

"Tell us how to get back to our world, before I gut you right here."

"That's why I'm here!" the Caesar gasped, struggling with Six's foot planted on his chest. "I'm here to help! Six-have you lost it?!"

"Killing off a crowd of Rexes isn't my idea of help," Six sneered.

"Killing off-you think I'm behind all this?" the man, asked, dark eyebrows creeping high enough to leave the goggles. "But I just got here twenty minutes ago!"

"Twenty minutes?" Rex repeated incredulously. "You can't have been here that long. Nobody's gone or come back for days!"

"And yet I just arrived," countered Caesar.

"Prove it," commanded Six.

"That equipment you just destroyed was the dimensional disruptor I used to get here. If you're the Rex from my world," he added, jerking his head towards Rex slightly. "Then you might recognize its general design from the incident with Alpha."

Rex and Six exchanged glances, and Rex shrugged. He left briefly, and came back carrying the disruptor, looking over the damage to its side.

"I dunno. It looks kind of different from how I remember it."

"That's because I've made some modifications to accommodate ease of control and navigation in a field environment," Caesar explained. "The point of coming here was to bring you two back to our world, not get stranded."

"How do we know you're not the Caesar that just tried to abduct me for his own world?" Rex shot back.

"Abduct you? ... There's another version of me here, as well?" Rex could almost hear the gears turning in his head.

"Yeah," said Rex, "And he's even more twisted in the head than you. His Rex is dead. All this," he gestured around them, "Was built so he could find another one to replace him."

"... I see," said Caesar softly. Then he frowned. "If this is the case, then we should leave as quickly as possible."

"No argument there," Rex said. "You know, assuming you're the Caesar from my world and all. Is there any way we can tell for sure?"

"I have a scanner in one of my vest pockets. Six?"

There was a tense beat of silence, before Six stepped back, putting his swords away in a fluid snapping movement. Caesar slowly sat up, before producing a handheld device from a vest pocket. He activated its display, lifting the goggles out of the way to get a better look. Rex let out a small breath he hadn't noticed he'd held.

"You're not blind," he said out loud.

"Blind?" Caesar repeated.

"Caesar 81 wears goggles to cover his eyes," Six explained.

"Oh. Mine have night-vision capabilities. Why is he called '81'? Are there that many versions of me here?" Caesar pushed his goggles up higher.

"There were more, actually, but it looks like Caesar 81 killed them all too," Rex told him. Caesar paused what he was doing, before continuing to navigate the display. Then he turned it around for the other two to see.

"It says we're a match."

Rex and Six both leaned forward for a moment, before Rex realized he wasn't sure what he was looking at. All the screen showed was a readout of numbers, some of them similar and some of them different. After a moment, Rex nodded knowledgeably, deciding to trust in his gut feeling that the Caesar before him was telling the truth. Six withdrew without a word at all.

"I guess we probably owe you an apology, huh?" said Rex awkwardly.

"Thanks, but you had every reason to be alarmed," Caesar replied, standing and taking the machine from him. "What I'm far more concerned about now is the state of the dimensional disruptor. Fortunately I put the most sensitive components closer to its center, but the damage is still serious. I don't suppose there's a safe place we could examine it in more detail?"

"We could try the air-vents?" Rex suggested doubtfully.

"We should continue with plan A," Six said, jabbing a thumb at the room they'd just left. "This place is defensible, and we won't know until later if the disruptor can be fixed."

"Right, the plan!" said Rex suddenly. Then he grimaced. "Yeah." He turned to Caesar. "We're trying to use me as bait to draw out the crazy you and force him to let us go home."

"Until we can be sure that this thing still works, we may have to follow through with that," Caesar answered quietly.

"Joy," Rex said. "Well-let's get started."

-

As it turned out, the disruptor was easily fixed (with Rex's nanite-help), and plan A was a bust.

"Where is he?" Rex groaned, looking down both ways of the hallway. "The power's back! He knows where we are!"

"He knows we're both here," Six corrected, sharpening his second sword. "He must not want to come close while I'm around. He's trying to outwait us." The sharpening stopped, and the sword disappeared. "We need a new strategy."

"Like what?" said Rex. "I don't know about you, but I'm this close to saying we should just pack up and go home. We don't know for sure that he can still get at any more universes right now. We could even cut the power permanently on our way out, just in case."

"There's over a hundred corpses of you finishing their last cooling stages in this facility, Rex." Six folded his arms. "I'm not risking it."

"Then what now, Six? The longer we wait here, the longer he has to cook up something evil and crazy to sick on us! I don't know about you guys, but I don't want anything to happen to you both!"

"Nothing will happen to either of us, Rex," Caesar reassured him. "I've had a thought. This Caesar knows that you two are here waiting for him. Does he know I'm here, as well?"

"What're you getting at?" Six asked flatly.

"He hasn't just killed Rexes here," Caesar reminded him mildly. "He wants our Rex all to himself, and to do that he killed all the Caesars who would've stopped him. If he thought he'd missed one by accident..."

"Then he'd try to finish the job," Six finished. The corners of his mouth turned up grudgingly.

"I don't know about this, guys," Rex protested, rubbing the back of his neck. "Drawing him out with anger-management ninja nanny and super-nanite boy is one thing. How can you be sure he won't actually kill you?"

"I know how to handle myself, Rex," said Caesar. "Besides, all we need is to draw him out. If he's blind, then he'd probably have to get fairly close to kill me, and you both could stop him before it got to that point."

"I've seen blind agents that can hit a target at dozens of yards away," Six disagreed. Rex looked at him in alarm. "Then again, that Caesar is no assassin. The plan should theoretically still work. What we need now is to find a way to let 81 know there's a Caesar still alive."

"Is there an intercom in this building?" Caesar wondered.

"There is," said Rex, gusting out an unhappy sigh. "And we know where an access point is. Follow me."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

-

Their Caesar's message was tense and to the point.

"If anyone's still alive to hear me, then hold on. I'm getting help. I will continue to broadcast every two minutes until my personal disruptors' capacitors have finished charging. Just keep waiting until then, and everything will be fine. I repeat-if anyone's still alive..."

The didn't have to wait long at all. Six and Rex took up positions on either side of the door while Caesar stood by a vent at the back of the room, holding a flashlight. Slow, precise footsteps approached all too soon, hesitated outside the door. The knob jiggled. There was just enough time for a silver barrel to poke around the door, for Caesar to cry out in surprise, and for Six to lunge forward before total chaos erupted. The door was swatted aside like a crumpled candy wrapper by a whirling fun-chuck, the flashlight swerved aimlessly toward a wall and plunged the room into half-darkness, and Six was a blur of blades and darkness, planting a kick that brought him and their attacker through the door the latter had come in through. Rex took that as his cue to rush forward with a shout, but Six abruptly sprang back from his target, halting Rex with an outstretched arm. Taking the sword held in that same hand, he thrust it roughly through their opponent's chest. Sparks danced over both sword and figure, and Rex's choked cry of dismay was frozen in its tracks.

"A robot?!" Rex sputtered. The robot, which had been their opponent all along, fell to its knees. Six yanked the sword from its temporary home, and they both surveyed the wreckage for a moment.

"Something's not right," Six muttered. Then he snapped his head up, whirling around. "Decoy! He's behind us!"

Rex had one wild moment to wonder if Six had changed his mind about the Caesar they'd been using as bait, when Six dove back into the room they'd left, and Rex tore after him.

It turned out he hadn't needed to rush. Six had stopped almost as soon as he'd started, standing by the door with a grim scowl. Caesar-goggles-free-stood where he'd been before, struggling to keep the arm around his throat from cutting off his air supply. There was a handgun pressed against the side of his head. Another Caesar, this one wearing goggles, was holding it.

"You!" Rex burst out furiously. A slight pause: "How'd you even get in here?! We were standing guard the whole time!"

"Airvents-" his Caesar wheezed, and the arm at his throat tightened until his eyes bulged. He stopped talking. The air vent beside them that Rex had only noticed in passing before was now open, and Rex was surprised he'd missed it.

"Give it up, Caesar," Six growled. "Don't do anything stupid."

Caesar 81 smirked. "Drop your swords and back out of here, Six."

"Drop the gun first."

"You think you're in any position to give the orders, here?!" Caesar 81 snarled, face twisting with hate that took Rex by surprise. The man took the gun away from Caesar's head, pressing it parallel with his hostage's leg. He pulled the trigger, and Caesar's strangled shout of pain was lost in the guns rapport. An ugly fat hole had appeared in the side of the man's boot, and dark blood immediately oozed out of it.

"Caesar!" Rex shouted. His brother twisted to press the injury against the other leg's ankle, and gave him a tight grin in spite of it. He also mouthed something airlessly, and Rex only just make out, 'it's nothing'.

Caesar 81 replaced the gun at his doppelganger head. "I'll only say it once more: Drop the swords."

Silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. Rex, face twisted unhappily, risked a glance at his mentor.

"We don't have a choice, Six."

The look he got in return said that Six disagreed, but a beat later the swords hit the ground. They weren't his only weapons, but it was enough for Caesar 81.

"Now... All of you are going to listen very carefully to what I tell you, or your dear old brother's brains are going to turn to_ huevos rancheros_ in his skull. Six-get out of here."

"If you really think-" Six started.

"Six!" Rex hissed.

"Rex," Six snapped back. Rex gave him a look, and Six glared furiously back. When Rex made a shoo-ing motion with his hand, Six clenched his hands into fists, before backing up until he was standing in the doorway.

"Close the door, Rex."

Rex closed it noisily, and was unsurprised to see it slide silently open again right after.

Caesar 81 smiled, though the expression was twisted, as though he could smell something rotting at the same time.

"You and this Caesar really are something," the man murmured. "This one treated you like garbage back in your world, and here you are, standing up for him."

"My problems with Caesar are between me and him," Rex shot back, wondering vaguely how he knew their history. "He may be a jerk, but he doesn't deserve to get shot by some crazy psycho version of himself!"

"And I deserve to die with a sword through my skull?"

"That's different," Rex protested, feeling his gut clench. "You're trying to kill the people I care about, and kidnap me. This is self defense."

"Self defense?" Caesar 81 repeated, visibly shocked. It looked sincere. "Rex-no. I'm trying to help you. Haven't you figured it out, yet? If you come with me, there won't be anything that can hurt you. You'll be invulnerable! Most of all, you'll be _safe_."

"Not safe from you," the Caesar under the gun ground out. Caesar 81's face tightened, and he stomped on the hole in the other Caesar's boot. Suddenly his chokehold was the only thing keeping Caesar upright, and Caesar gaped like a fish, utterly unable to take in air.

Rex raked a hand through his hair anxiously. "Let him go, Eighty-one-you're suffocating him!"

"When this version of me hits the ground, he'll be a corpse," Caesar 81 replied in a low tone. The grip on his alternate self's throat lessened slightly, though, and Caesar was able to force air in and out of his lungs in tiny, painful gasps.

Caesar 81 inched away from the vent-door he'd kicked open, jerking his head towards it. "Go on, Rex. You first."

"Where's it supposed to go?" Rex demanded, not moving an inch towards the opening.

Caesar 81's smile glinted again, like a malevolent Cheshire cat's grin. "The faster we get there, the sooner you'll find out. Plus, the less likely it is he'll be to bleed out before then," he added, unperturbed.

Rex glared venomously at him, before stomping past him towards the door. It was too narrow for both him and his fun-chucks, so he detransformed them, plunging himself into pitch darkness. It was like standing in a void, with walls pressing in from all sides.

"Just keep going," Caesar 81 said gently behind him. "I'll let you know when it's time to turn."

"Goody," Rex mumbled. He could hear Caesar 81 dragging his brother after him, with some uncoordianted thumps he thought might've been his brother trying to stand on his own.

There was nothing for it. Rex put a hand along the wall, felt the ground in front of him with his shoe, and started the long trek through the dark.

The going was slow, and at first Rex took every step as though the next one might drop him into a bottomless chasm without warning. The novelty wore off as they went on, and Rex checked less and less often for a pit that never appeared. Eventually he was striding through the darkness, impatient to get wherever they were going and do something for his brothers' injuries. Sounds of movement from the injured man's direction had been going weaker as they went, until all he could hear was the sound of Caesar 81 dragging him with them. Rex preferred to think that Caesar was simply saving his strength. The alternatives didn't bear thinking about.

Finally, Caesar 81 called a halt to their progress, and Rex had to press himself against the wall to let the man and hostage slither past. He could hear the scientist shift his burden around and fiddle with some kind of lock, before some flimsy kind of door opened-maybe another vent cover-and the two Caesars scraped through the opening into the room beyond. Rex followed, hands held out to feel for obstacles on the way.

They'd walked into a large room with floors that tapped metalically underfoot. Rex wandered until he bumped into some sort of table, and groped his way around it.

There was a heavy thud not far from him, like a corpse hitting a surface. "Bro?" Rex asked, snapping his head to try and pinpoint its source. "Eighty-one?"

"Your brother's fine," Caesar 81 said. Rex heard him fiddle with something else, and a dim light flared in the darkness. Rex put a hand up to protect his eyes until they adjusted, squinting in his brother's direction. Both Caesars were at another table a few feet away from his, where one Caesar had heaved the limp form of the other into the surface. Caesar 81 turned to face him, lifting his gun. "Safe and sound, for now." The gun planted itself on Caesar's chest and didn't leave.

"He doesn't look so good," Rex said quietly. Caesar's face was grey, and slicked with sweat. Even in unconsciousness his face twisted in pain.

"He'll live," Caesar 81 dismissed. He waved his free hand in Rex's direction. "Lie down on the table, Rex. There's some machinery that should engage, and I promise it won't hurt you."

"What'll it try to do?" Rex asked suspiciously. Nonetheless, he perched himself gingerly on the table, staying near the edge as though he were sitting on a sharp fence instead of a wide flat surface.

"Nothing painful," Caesar 81 assured him. "It's only the next phase in the plan, designed to make you happier when you come back with me to our world."

"What does it do, Caesar?" Rex pressed, feeling the bottom drop out of his stomach.

"Lie down, Rex." Caesar 81 had moved the gun to press right over Caesar's heart, waiting.

Rex made a sound of strangled frustration, before he threw himself back on the table, folding his arms and kicking his feet out. "Let him go, already! You have what you wanted, you don't need him anymore!"

"Engage primary restraints," Caesar 81 enunciated clearly, by way of reply.

Rex froze in horror, and by the time he'd thrown himself to the side it was too late. Thick, heavy-duty straps flew out from the sides of the table, zipping across his chest and legs. Rex heard a click as they locked into place, and he forced his arms through a speed transformation into smack-hands. The straps simply stretched with them, keeping both him and the metal arms snugly against the table.

"Let me go, Eighty-one!" Rex shouted, struggling to no avail.

Finally Caesar 81 tucked his gun into the back of his belt, going to Rex's table. "No, Rex. I promised _Mamá y Papá_ I'd look after you, and this time I'm going to do it."

"Mom and Dad are dead, Caesar!" Rex snarled. "Taking me back to your world won't change the fact that they'd be horrified at what you're becoming! Just listen yourself, you're crazy!"

"No, I'm not!" Caesar 81 burst out, forcing Rex's head back against the table. "I'm taking responsibility, Rex! I'm the older brother, and you're all I have!" A large, smothering hand muffled Rex's next response, and Caesar 81 strapped something across Rex's forehead by feel. He didn't stop talking; it was as though a dam had burst, and couldn't stop the words that were pouring out.

"You don't even remember what that's like, do you? To have had something, and then have it taken away? All you know is waking up, and boom! Six is there! Holidays' there! They'll look after you! They're always there, they don't care what you do, you're their family, now! It just fell into your lap without you even having to look, didn't it?"

Caesar 81 grabbed Rex by his hair with a shaking hand, talking directly into his face. "I didn't get that. You think I had time for people with Providence? People were dying-my work was more important than you, or me, or anyone! 'Saving humanity always comes first'!" He laughed with a slightly hysterical edge, letting go. "At least, that's what our parents thought. Those were easy decisions then."

"But I understand, now," Caesar 81 went on, pressing something on the strap across Rex's forehead. Rex realized there was a control pad built there, and he snapped at Caesar with his teeth, until Caesar forced his jaws shut again.

"Family comes first," the man whispered. "It took losing everything to realize it, but we really aren't anything without it. I couldn't go on. There was nothing. The world could burn at this point, and I wouldn't care. I'd needed you."

He slowly smiled, face relaxing into the awed and trembling gesture.

"And now I'm bringing you back."

Caesar 81 let go of Rex's jaw and touched his own goggles, before pushing them gently up. There were deep rings where the rings had pressed against his face for so long, and familiar brown eyes roved back and forth fruitlessly, searching without seeing. There were no obvious signs of blindness beyond the fact that his eyes were out of focus, clearly not registering anything at all.

His eyes filled unexpectedly with tears. Caesar blinked, and then scrubbed his face with an abashed, but achingly happy smile. He huffed a small laugh at himself. "Look at me... It's good that you won't remember this. This isn't how big brothers are supposed to act. We're supposed to be strong."

"Won't remember?!" Rex blurted out. Rex's eyes flew wide until they were perfect circles.

"Of course," said Caesar, nodding as though it were obvious. "You wouldn't be happy if you remembered any of this." He waved, indicating himself and the table. "You wouldn't trust me, and that would defeat the entire point of everything that's just happened. Don't worry-I've set this up so that it should accurately replicate the aftereffects of your regular amnesia. No one, not even you, should know the difference."

"_CAESAR, LET ME GO!_" Rex bellowed, and he realized he was trembling violently. Terror was like a living thing inside of his chest, clawing around at his ribcadge and struggling to escape. Every limb felt like ice and jello. Caesar pressed his other hand against the side of his head, making a soothing 'shh'ing sound.

"It's okay, Rex-you're already starting to forget. Just give it time, it'll all just slip away..."

Rex wildly searched his memories, trying to figure out what 'he was already forgetting. He could still remember Six, and Bobo, and Holiday. Meatloaf Fridays, breaking out for joyriding, getting scolded by White Knight, basketball with Noah-

Noah? He couldn't remember what Noah looked like. He could remember an outline, and basketball, and his voice, but no face. No favorite jacket. Rex's brain stalled on this thought for a second, before he searched furiously for another gap like that. He found one: he remembered disliking White Knight. He couldn't remember why.

Rex couldn't stop a horrible, broken sound from tearing itself from his throat at the realization, twisting his head away from his brother's copy. It was his worst nightmare come true: his memories were slipping through his fingers like water, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn't break free. Every second that passed, every second he stayed in that machine, he was losing more, and soon, he'd lose his family, and everything he'd else he'd tried to build for himself. He'd be no one, there'd be nothing left but a blank husk left-

Something heavy and fast hit someone that cried out, and Caesar's hands were ripped from Rex's face. Rex turned to look, and calloused, scrabbling hands filled his vision, snatching the strap from across his head and flinging it away.

"Rex!" It was Six. "I'm getting you out of here. Hold on."

Rex squeezed his eyes shut miserably when Six left his sight, hearing his swords get drawn when the straps had no buckle. The blades were rammed through the ports feeding the straps out, and the restraints contracted spasmodically, before going limp. Six sawed through one after another, and soon Rex was pushing himself up on rubbery limbs, feeling all of eight years old and desperately afraid.

"Six," Rex tried hoarsely. Six was right there beside him almost immediately, and Rex gave him no warning before he threw his arms around him, shaking like a leaf in a gale. Six jumped in shock, but arranged his arms awkwardly around him, clearly unfamiliar with the situation. The gesture was so unmistakably Six that Rex crushed his face into the man's vest, wanting to surround himself with the support that was so unpracticed but completely unwavering and never, ever leave.

Rex heard stirring on the ground behind him, and shuddered in remembered horror of the last few minutes. Six tightened his grip on him, before freeing one arm and drawing a gun. He'd disarmed Caesar 81 at some point: it was the handgun the scientist had used to threaten his hostage.

"Don't move," Six commanded. Rex could hear the hardness in his tone, and knew with a horrible certainty that Caesar 81 was one wrong word from being shot.

Caesar 81, apparently, could hear the same. The scientist choked on a little sob, and tried miserably to strangle his own words. One name tore itself free as though against his will.

"Rex..."

Rex froze, heart jackhammering in his chest. This Caesar had wanted to take him away, had tried to take away everything he'd ever known and loved, memory by memory, thought by thought-"Rex, please, don't do this..." Caesar 81 moaned in agony, and began to stir again. The sound of Six undoing the gun's safety wasn't enough to dissuade him, and the man rose to his feet, teetering precariously. Rex turned his head only enough to look, watching as though in a sort of horrified trance.

"Rex-please, listen..." The blind man swayed, and tilted, and then pitched forward in an uncontrolled, shambling rush, long arms snaking forward to grasp anything they could.

"Rex-" He cried, and a gun's blast cut off anything further.

Rex watched the man crumple, stopped by the blooming of a perfect red dot over his heart. Six stowed the gun somewhere and pushed Rex's face towards the opposite direction, forcing him to look away from Caesar 81's unmoving form.

Everything was still in the ringing silence. Rex felt numb, as though the problem of not knowing what to collapse into a gibbering heap over first was so much that his mind had taken a vacation with a note to call back when a decision had been made. He wanted to laugh at that image, but it came out a hysterical sob, and he realized his eyes were leaking without his knowledge.

"H-he... He tried to take away my memory," Rex hiccoughed, mashing his forehead back against Six's chest when he stuttered. His voice fell to a mumble. "He w-wanted me... w-wanted his f-family back..."

Six said nothing, and it didn't seem as though he needed to explain anything more. They stayed the way they were without moving, until finally Rex realized he was holding Six's sleeves in a death-grip tight enough that he couldn't feel his own hands. Rex uncurled his fists stiffly, stumbling back a step, and wiping his face gruffly on his own sleeve.

"Thanks," he muttered. "S-sorry about-"

"Don't worry about it," Six interrupted. After a moment, he put a deliberate hand on his shoulder, as though having seen the gesture somewhere else and trying it out for the first or second time. "What matters now is that you're okay."

Rex tried to smile, though the gesture came out more of a grimace. "Thanks," he said again, and scrubbed his nose on the back of his sleeve, looking around. He carefully didn't look at the corpse by their feet.

His eyes fell on the table not so far away, and took on a far off quality. "Caesar..." He murmured.

Six turned in the same direction. Caesar, their world's Caesar, laid still on the table, deathly pale and unmoving. Six left Rex's side and took the man's vitals, and Rex's breath hitched unevenly at the sight. A hand at his brother's jaw, different from how Caesar 81 had silenced Rex earlier. A hand over his heart, where Caesar 81 had held the gun to keep his hostage in danger.

Six turned back to him. "He's alive, but he's lot a lot of blood. Do you have any idea how to control the dimensional disruptor he brought?"

"No, but my nanites probably do," Rex replied.

Six had brought the disruptor with him when he'd followed their dwindling trail of blood through the darkened vent-passages, and now he fetched it from where he'd dropped it upon entering.

Rex put his hands on it and closed his eyes, praying that Caesar had thought to write an automatic program beforehand that might help them get home. Glowing blue lines traced their way from his hands and into cracks in the casing-

There was a program. Rex activated it with a shaky sigh of relief, and a huge blazing circle of light appeared before them.

"Let's go!" he yelled, striding towards it. Six slung one of Caesar's arms over his shoulders and dragged him with them. All three of them went through at the same time, leaving the empty, lifeless facility behind.

-


End file.
